Reports: Decorated SEAL killed at gun range

Chris Kyle wrote 'American Sniper'

Former Navy SEAL and “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle was fatally shot along with another man Saturday on a Texas gun range, a sheriff told local media outlets.

Kyle, 38, and a second unidentified man were found dead at Rough Creek Lodge’s shooting range west of Glen Rose, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Stephenville Empire-Tribune and Dallas Mornings News.

Rough Creek Lodge is about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

A suspect, identified as Eddie Ray Routh, was arrested, according to reports.

The Star-Telegram reports a gunman opened fire on the men, then fled in a pickup truck belonging to one of the victims, witnesses told sheriff's investigators. The newspaper said a 25-year-old man was later taken into custody in Lancaster, southeast of Dallas.

"It just comes as a shock and it's staggering to think that after all Chris has been through, that this is how he meets his end, because there are so many ways he could have been killed" in Iraq, Scott McEwen, who wrote the book with Kyle, told Reuters.

Kyle wrote the best-selling book, “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History,” detailing his 150-plus kills of insurgents from 1999 to 2009.

Kyle served four combat tours of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom and elsewhere, and won two Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars for bravery, according to his book.

Kyle is the co-author of another book coming out in May under the title "American Gun - A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms."